Personal Finance Tools

Personal-budgeting and net-worth tools, post-Mint shutdown (Mint sunset Jan 2024). For team / business finance see accounting; for self-host options see selfhost-personal; for subscription tracking specifically see subscriptions-billing and prod-task-gtd-apps; for FinOps (cloud spend) see ops finops.

The Mint shutdown wave (2024+)

Mint shut down January 2024 (Intuit moved users to Credit Karma). The category re-shaped:

• Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) — paid + limited free; absorbed many Mint refugees; subscription-tracking + budgets.
• Monarch Money — paid; the most direct Mint replacement; multi-user, beautiful, US/Canada-focused.
• Copilot — paid; Apple-only at first, now Android; AI-categorisation; pretty.
• Empower (formerly Personal Capital) — free; net-worth + investment focus; sales calls are the catch.
• Credit Karma — free; what Mint users got migrated to; thinner.
• NerdWallet — free; budgets-light + credit monitoring.

Envelope / zero-based budgeting

• ★ YNAB (You Need A Budget) — paid (~$15/mo); the cult-favourite envelope budget; explicit "give every dollar a job"; great mobile + web; paid college students free.
• ★ Actual Budget — free OSS self-host or hosted (paid); the YNAB-shape OSS choice; ★ for self-host. See selfhost-personal.
• EveryDollar (Ramsey) — paid + free; envelope-flavour; Dave Ramsey-leaning.
• Goodbudget — paid + free; literal envelope app; manual entry.

Net-worth + budget combined

• ★ Monarch Money — paid (~$100/yr); multi-user, accounts + investments + budgets; the polished modern Mint successor.
• ★ Copilot — paid (~$95/yr); Apple-native; gorgeous; AI categorisation; Plaid-backed.
• Lunch Money — paid + free; indie; multi-currency; crypto support; friendly to international users.
• Tiller Money — paid (~$80/yr); spreadsheet-based — auto-imports to Google Sheets / Excel; for power users who want their own formulas.
• Pocketsmith — paid + free; cash-flow forecasting; international.
• Snoop (UK) — free; UK-leaning.
• Emma (UK / EU) — paid + free.

Investment / portfolio tracking

• Empower — free; US-leaning.
• Sharesight — paid + free; international; great dividends + capital gains reporting.
• Ghostfolio — free OSS self-host; investment tracker — see selfhost-personal.
• Portfolio Performance — free OSS desktop (Java); long-time German favourite.
• Snowball Analytics — paid + free; dividend-focused.
• Delta / CoinTracker / Kubera — crypto + multi-asset; some paid.

Self-host

• ★ Actual Budget — free OSS YNAB-shape — see selfhost-personal.
• Firefly III — free OSS; full personal-finance manager; YNAB-flavour — see selfhost-personal.
• Maybe Finance — free OSS (community-revived after closure) — see selfhost-personal.
• Ghostfolio — free OSS investment tracker — see selfhost-personal.
• Wallos — free OSS subscription tracker — see selfhost-personal.

Subscription tracking

• ★ Rocket Money — paid + free; surfaces forgotten subscriptions; will negotiate cancellations for you (paid feature, takes a cut).
• Bobby — paid one-time; iOS-only; manual entry; clean.
• Subby — paid + free; iOS / Android.
• Wallos — free OSS self-host — see selfhost-personal.
• Subscription tab in Apple Wallet / Google Pay — free; only catches what you paid through the wallet.
• Subscription Tracker templates in Notion / Sheets — free; manual.
• See also subscriptions-billing (which is mostly the merchant side).

Couples / shared budget

• Monarch Money — multi-user is core feature.
• Honeydue — free; couples-only.
• Splitwise — free + paid Pro; bill-splitting between roommates / friends; not a full budget.

Bank connection (Plaid + alternatives)

• ★ Plaid — used by most US apps (Monarch, Copilot, Lunch Money). The de-facto US bank connector. Reliability has improved 2024+.
• TrueLayer — UK / EU.
• Saltedge — global.
• Yodlee / MX — older bank-aggregators.
• Manual CSV import — Tiller / Actual / Firefly — slower but more reliable than connector outages.

International / non-US notes

• Plaid coverage outside US/Canada/UK is patchy. Lunch Money and Pocketsmith are the most international-friendly hosted options.
• Open Banking (UK / EU) is mature; UK users have Snoop, Emma, Yolt-shape options.
• Self-host (Firefly / Actual + manual import) is often the most reliable approach for non-US users.

Pricing reality check

• YNAB ~$15/mo or ~$100/yr — premium price; converts hardcore.
• Monarch ~$100/yr.
• Copilot ~$95/yr.
• Lunch Money ~$10/mo or ~$100/yr; ~free tier (limited transactions).
• Tiller ~$80/yr.
• Rocket Money free for tracking; paid for advanced features.
• Actual / Firefly / Ghostfolio / Wallos / Maybe all free OSS.

Patterns that actually work

• ★ Pick the budget system, then the app. YNAB's envelope method, Tiller's spreadsheet, Copilot's transaction-review-each-day — these are different practices, not just UIs.
• Manual review weekly > automation set-and-forget — bank-connection drops happen; surprise transactions matter.
• Don't connect crypto if you don't have to — privacy + reliability cost.
• Annual subscription audit — Rocket Money / Wallos surface forgotten ones.
• Net-worth ≠ budget — they're different jobs; a tool that does both well (Monarch / Copilot) saves you from running two.

Pick this if…

• Modern Mint replacement, polished: Monarch Money or Copilot.
• Apple-only pretty: Copilot.
• Cult envelope budgeting, paid: YNAB.
• Envelope budgeting, OSS, self-host: Actual Budget — see selfhost-personal.
• Spreadsheet power user: Tiller.
• International / multi-currency: Lunch Money or Pocketsmith.
• Subscription tracking only: Rocket Money (hosted) or Wallos (self-host).
• Investment tracking: Empower (free, US) or Sharesight / Ghostfolio.
• Full self-host stack: Firefly III + Ghostfolio + Wallos — see selfhost-personal.